U.S. Senate Democrats are investigating whether the Federal Communications Commission and Paramount prevented Stephen Colbert from broadcasting an interview with the Texas Democratic candidate, James Talarico. Talarico, a state representative from Austin, is going up against the U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Dallas in the primary election, with early voting starting Tuesday, Feb. 24th. The winner will face the winner of the Republican primary in the November midterm election.

The decision to cancel this airing came hours before early voting opened on Tuesday in Texas for the primary elections. Colbert commented on this episode in a subsequent segment: “He was supposed to be here, but we were told in no uncertain terms by our network’s lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have him on the broadcast.”

CBS denied Colbert’s statement, saying its lawyers only “provided legal guidance” that broadcasting an interview with Talarico could raise issues under the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) equal-time rule. Brendan Carr, President Donald Trump’s FCC pick, has decided that “use of broadcast airtime by a legally qualified candidate would require the broadcaster to place a record” so other legally qualified candidates can submit an equal opportunity request within the same broadcast. Making sure the other candidate also has a fair opportunity to get coverage. The supposed point is to make it less one-sided; however, is that really the case?

However, this is a very sudden issue. If this was something that was a genuine concern for CBS, why did they approve the episode in the first place? Colbert also brings this point up in the episode, stating, “I got called backstage to get more notes from these lawyers. Something that had never, ever happened before, and they told us the language they wanted me to use to describe that equal time exception, and I used that language,” Colbert said. “So I don’t know what this is about.”

The Senate’s investigation is the latest controversy in the censorship regime that has appeared in CBS since Ellison became CEO of Paramount Skydance. He is the son of Larry Ellison, a close friend and adviser of Trump’s.

Talarico commented on the alleged censorship, stating, “This is the party that ran against cancel culture, and now they are trying to control what we watch, what we say, and what we read,” the state lawmaker said.”

This is not the first instance of censorship, as in December 2025, CBS News’ new editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, pulled a 60 Minutes segment regarding Trump administration deportations to a notorious Salvadoran prison. It’s only a matter of time before everyone starts looking at this pattern and wondering what it is really about. Equal and true coverage, or not letting ideas out in the public that they do not agree with.

Colbert added a further comment stating, “Carr here claims he’s just getting partisanship off the airwaves, but the FCC, as I said, is also in charge of regulating radio broadcasts,” the comedian said. “And what would you know? Brendan Carr says right-wing talk radio isn’t a target of the FCC’s equal time notice.”

“If you’re fake news, you’re not going to qualify as the bona fide news exception,” Carr said during a press conference after the agency’s monthly meeting. That is a very interesting comment. Who decides what is “fake news” and what is not? It again feels very politically charged on the right side. The decision should not be political but fair. It undermines the FCC’s credibility. FCC Commissioner Anna M. Gomez called the pull “another troubling example of corporate capitulation in the face of this Administration’s broader campaign to censor and control speech.” 

“The FCC has no lawful authority to pressure broadcasters for political purposes or to create a climate that chills free expression,” she said. “CBS is fully protected under the First Amendment to determine what interviews it airs, which makes its decision to yield to political pressure all the more disappointing.”

CBS officially announced last year that Colbert’s show would end in May of 2026. Colbert has been the host of it since 2015 and has been a frequent critic of Trump’s administration.

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(Photo credit: “The Late Show”/Youtube)